The present invention relates to combination financial products, systems and methods, e.g., combination annuity products for retirement income planning and investing.
An annuity contract in its simplest form is a contract between an insurance company and a contract owner that provides for payments to an annuitant at regular intervals during the life of a specified individual.
There are different ways of classifying insurance products such as annuities. In one method, insurance products can be classified according to how premium payments are invested. According to this method, insurance products can be divided into two general categories: general account products (“fixed insurance products”), and separate account products (“variable insurance products”).
In the case of fixed insurance products, the insurance company guarantees certain benefits. More specifically with respect to fixed deferred annuities, the insurance company generally guarantees a certain rate of interest for a period of time on premiums paid. Once the guarantee period is over, a new interest rate is set for the next period. During an income phase (the period during which the insurance company provides income payments to the contract's annuitant), the contract guarantees fixed income payments to the annuitant based on the contract's account value at the start of the income phase and an assumed interest rate.
Fixed annuities sales are currently driven by growth in Equity Index Annuities (EIAs.) An EIA is an annuity that earns interest that is somewhat linked to a stock or other equity index. An EIA is different from other fixed annuities because of the way it credits interest to the annuity's value. Most fixed annuities only credit interest calculated at a rate set by the company managing the annuity. Equity-indexed annuities credit interest using a formula based on changes in the index to which the annuity is linked. Typically, the EIA does not actually invest in the index.
The current low interest rate environment combined with the volatility of the equity markets has reduced consumer demand for traditional fixed annuities as compared to EIAs, which are marketed as providing “upside potential with downside protection.”
If prospective contract or policy owners desire the potential for greater benefits and can accept the associated greater risk than afforded by the conservative investing inherent in fixed insurance products, they may purchase a variable annuity contract. In the case of variable insurance products, the insurance company generally does not guarantee the product's benefits, nor its account or cash values. Instead, the investment performance of the assets underlying the product largely if not entirely determine the benefits and contract values. With variable insurance products the insurance company makes available to the owner a number of investment options in a separate account, sometimes called the variable account. One can refer to the investment options as sub-accounts. The contract owner or policy owner chooses from among these sub-accounts to invest the premiums.
Despite these fixed products and variable products, a need remains for a financial product that can truly provide downside protection and upside potential.